Famous Like Me > Actor > O > Robert Emmett O'Connor
Profile of Robert Emmett O'Connor
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Name: |
Robert Emmett O'Connor |
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Date of Birth: |
18th March 1885 |
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Place of Birth: |
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA |
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Actor |
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From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia Born in 1959
Undergraduate degree State University of New York at Oswego, New York
Graduate Syracuse University
Currently teaches at his alma mater State University of New York at Oswego
Author of the 1992 novel Buffalo Soldiers by Vintage Press
Buffalo Soldiers
The novel takes place on a US Army supply base near Stuttgart, Germany. The piece is an overall look at cold war politics and its effects on the personnel stationed there. A largely satirical look at the folly of being in war while not at war, the book look at themes such as drug use and dealing, Racial Politics, American foreign policy, love, and millitary culture. The narrative follows Ray Elwood, a slick Army specialist who knows the “ins†and “outs†of a requisition form, and charming enough to his superiors to make absurd request seem like normal. By night time, Elwood is the local heroin supplier who gives the soldiers a release, if they can come up with the cash or services for his smack. Alluringly sexual descriptions are attributed to the use of heroin in order to glamorize and then allows it to develop into the devastating cause of deaths and accidents around the base as the soldiers shoot up (sometimes each other) for having nothing better to do. As these deaths and accidents are investigated a trail is formed to Elwood and he must contend with Sergeant Lee who is looking to bring Elwood down. A Publisher's Weekly blurb sites:
"O'Connor misfires now and then only because he aims high; aided by his infectious gift for sneering and his sharp eye for institutionalized depravity, he marks most of his targets with tight clusters around the bull's-eye."
Obviously using military styled description to underline the subject matter, however the novel ambition lies in the fact that it does the entire narrative in the second person voice. So instead of "Elwood does this or that," it becomes "You do this or that."
A film version was released in 2001 starring Ed Harris, Joaquin Phoenix, Anna Paquin, and Scott Glenn. It was directed by Gregor Jordan. The film kept some of the novel's elements and a general following of the events of the book. However, departures from the overall feel of the novel are quite noticeable. It won best screenplay from the Evening Standard British Film Award.
Links
Buffalo Soldiers at Internet Movie Database
SUNY Oswego O'Connor's Undergraduate Alma Mater and Current Employer
Syracuse University O'Connor's Graduate Alma Mater
U.S. Army U.S. Army Recruitment site
National Institue on Drug Abuse Article on Heroin
--Bear 03:21, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
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